Deirdre English

Complaints and Disorders was published in 1973, the same year as the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion. By 1976, Congress had passed the Hyde Amendment, which banned Medicaid funding for abortions for low-income women. Which is to say, within three short years, abortion went from a basic health right for all women to a class privilege. And remained that way.

Women are not a “class” ; they are not uniformly oppressed; they do not all experience sexism in the same ways.

Women are not a “class” ; they are not uniformly oppressed; they do not all experience sexism in the same ways.